Tuesday 16 December 2008 19.01 EST
First published on Tuesday 16 December 2008 19.01 EST

The central charge in your article, that Russia is fast turning into the Soviet Union, is as unsustainable as it is unfair (Back to the USSR, 10 December). Indeed, your report's grudging admission that Russia now has a market economy and that our citizens have freedom of speech and travel - three fundamental differences between modern Russia and the Soviet Union - undermines any serious suggestion of a comparison between the two eras.

On the economy, we don't underestimate the challenges that the global credit crisis poses to Russia. But to compare what's happening with the "stagnation and economic decline" of the Soviet Union under Leonid Brezhnev is ludicrous.

First, this is a crisis affecting not just Russia but every country in the world. Second, far from our economy "floundering" as the article claimed, many experts acknowledge that Russia is in better shape to weather the storm than our fellow members of the G8 - membership, by the way, that it would simply be impossible to imagine being extended to the USSR. Unlike many other countries, Russia deliberately put aside hundreds of billions of dollars to help our economy and our citizens through difficult periods.

Modern Russia is integrated into the global economy. We have enjoyed a decade of growth which has seen living standards rise strongly across the country. Many foreign firms do business in our country. Around 400 British companies alone operate in Russia, investing $26bn in our country last year. And Russian companies invest in enterprises around the world. These financial ties have spread prosperity, but also mean that when problems hit the global economy, we suffer too. Despite what the article tried to claim, the economic challenges we now face underline the differences, not the similarities, between the eras.

On relations beyond our borders, we are accused on the one hand of expansionist ambitions and having designed a "blueprint to bring back the Soviet Union's geography", and on the other of "becoming increasingly isolationist". It seems we can't win. And it is wrong to state that "Russia's territory now includes Abkhazia and South Ossetia" - they have both made clear that they are determined to retain their hard-won independence, something we are committed to respect.

There are, of course, foreign policy differences between Russia and America. But in recent years there have been many disagreements between Europe and the United States as well. All countries have their own interests and priorities. It doesn't mean we are reverting to two hostile blocs as in the past.

I cannot disagree that you can still find "decaying villages, poverty, alcoholism, high male mortality and general hopelessness" in communities in Russia. But these deep-seated problems are, sadly, also found in the UK, across Europe and in North America. They have little to do with the Soviet system or the direction of modern Russia.

We fully accept that we still have plenty of problems to overcome in Russia. But it would be nice to think we might see a change in the way our country is reported, and an end to the use of old stereotypes and caricatures.